Site of Hopedale Air Station (N-28) | demolished, closed / former military, former air force base, early warning radar

 demolished, closed / former military, former air force base, early warning radar

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Established in October of 1953 as a General Surveillance Radar Station and Sector Control Station on the Pinetree Line of defensive early warning radar sites, the Hopedale Air Station was constructed atop a seaside mountain above the village of Hopedale Newfoundland and manned by the 923d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron. Later reassigned to the USAF Air Defense Command on April 1st 1957 and given the designation "N-28", the stations role changed to that of a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station and was tasked with monitoring its portion of the coastline for Soviet aircraft and guiding interceptor aircraft from Goose Air Force Base to identified targets. 1957 also saw the construction of the Cape Makkovik Air Station (N-28A) approximately 50 miles Southeast, which functioned as a secondary "Gap Filler" radar site supporting the surveillance and guidance mission of Hopedale.

In addition to its airspace monitoring and defense role, Hopedale was also the site of a "Pole Vault" troposcatter communication station which carried transmissions in the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System from detection sites at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland to the terminal site at Goose Air Force Base. Hopedale functioned as a relay site in this network by means of 227 and 149 mile shots to Goose Air Force Base and Saglek Air Station respectively. The same two sites were also linked by a separate troposcatter station to the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Rear Communications network, which reached its peak size by the construction of a tropo shot to Cape Makkovik in the fall of 1957.

Operating continually through the late 1960's, the airspace monitoring mission carried out by Hopedale was made less critical by the shift towards Ballistic Missiles and away from masses of bomber aircraft, Hopedale's radar surveillance mission ended on 18 June 1968, and the station was officially closed on June 30, 1968. The site's Pole Vault mission would continue into the mid-1970's before satellite communications rendered the troposcatter communication obsolete. The site was razed of its infrastructure shortly thereafter, though today the concrete footings for the buildings, radar towers and antenna remain. Full environmental remediation of the site is still pending as of 2015.

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